Birtherism has reared its ugly head yet again in of all places, London! This came about as a result of President Obama inserting himself squarely into the Brexit controversy by penning an Op-Ed in the Daily Telegraph urging Brits to vote to stay in the EU. Brexit is the term used to describe the upcoming public referendum in June over whether Britain should leave or remain in the EU.
This ignited a spat between Obama and the Conservative Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who supports the exit of the UK from the EU. Channeling Trump, Johnson who kind of looks slightly like Trump with disheveled hair accused Obama of having “ancestral hostility to Britain due to his Kenyan roots”
Now as a Kenyan myself, I always find it interesting that the idea of Obama being Kenyan is controversial at all. In fact I would argue that most Kenyans are themselves squarely in the birther camp, with many happy to hope and wish that indeed Obama was born in Kenya. Further, despite having good reasons for it, the notion that Kenyans would be hostile to the UK is laughable. Kenya is a commonwealth country and one of both the UK and USA’s closest African allies with close corporation in the fight against Al Shabaab and other terrorist networks coming out of Somalia.
Maybe it’s because Obama is in the final year of his Presidency, but apparently he has found himself in the midst of several controversies lately and has come across as far more direct and outspoken than the usual diplomatic Obama we are all mostly used to.
The President had just come from what was arguably a Saudi Arabia fence mending trip when he found himself embroiled in the London controversy. The Saudi trip was seen as an attempt to quell an earlier controversy that had arisen as a result of remarks Obama had made about Saudi Arabia not doing enough for their own as well as Middle Eastern security in general.
Obama did not shy away from the controversy addressing Johnson’s allegations head-on during a joint press conference with Prime Minister David Cameron at 10 Downing Street Friday afternoon. This is an unabashedly direct attempt to help his buddy David Cameron, in what some may speculate is yet another fence mending exercise following reports of the two leaders frosting of their otherwise chummy relationship when Obama had complained about Britain’s role in Libya. David Cameron is in favor of the UK staying in the EU.
Obama’s visit coincided with Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday celebrations and perhaps this is the official purpose of the trip. Conveniently however, Obama’s visit happened to coincide with the upcoming referendum where the British public will vote on whether to stay in or leave the EU this coming June. The joint press conference following the Op-Ed supporting the “Stay” campaigns might just be a very strategically placed intervention on behalf of his friend David Cameron. The two men referred to each other by their first names and appeared as chummy as ever.
President Obama delivered a resounding rebuke of supporters of the campaign to leave which has argued that Britain would negotiate better trade deals directly with the U.S. To this Obama said, “I figured you might want to hear from the president of the United States what I think the United States is going to do”. Pointing to the European Union Trade deal currently being discussed as holding priority over any deal with a separate UK, the president went on to add that “The UK is going to be in the back of the queue”. The use of the word “queue” which is more British than American led opponents of staying in the EU to speculate that Obama’s remarks must have been provided him by number 10 Downing Street. The President’s warning was not very well received by the groups campaigning to leave with Vote Leave and Leave.eu both pointing to the fact that Obama was in his final year as President and wouldn’t even be around to discuss such a deal.
Reaction to Boris Johnson’s birtherism has been swift with commentators referring to the London Mayor as Donald Trump with a British accent.